


Settling In

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Impaired Judgment (and other excuses) [92]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 15:09:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19770793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: “It’s boring,” Julius says.“What’s boring?” Jared asks.Julius shrugs, kind of sharp, and doesn’t leave until late, even though they’re just both on their phones in front of a muted Sportsnet. Jared realises after he leaves it was probably not boring he meant, but lonely.





	Settling In

Jared’s distracted in practice, the day Bryce comes up to Edmonton. He knows he needs to focus, because he’s hardly the Bryce Marcus of the Oilers — not that the Oilers have a Bryce Marcus, which is kind of one of their problems. Still, it’s hard, because Bryce is on the road as Jared’s there, and Jared keeps wondering where he is, if he’s close, if he’s already here and waiting on Jared.

“Come over?” Julius asks after practice. It’s not the first time; Jared thinks he misses having a roomie when they’re home. “Lunch?”

“I can’t,” Jared says. 

Julius gives him a suspicious look, because it’s the first time Jared’s said no — Jared also kind of misses having a roomie — and Jared is suddenly aware that he has like, zero life outside his room right now. Which Julius only knows because he _also_ had zero life outside their room, but whatever.

“My fiancé’s coming in,” Jared says. 

Julius looks kind of jealous now. Jared doesn’t know when he started to be able to read the shades of Julius Halla’s poker face. Jared guesses he can’t just host his girlfriend for the night, considering the whole Finland thing. It certainly puts the distance from Calgary in perspective, though Jared still hates it.

“Lunch tomorrow?” Jared asks. Bryce will have to be on the road by then, back in Calgary for pre-game.

Julius shrugs. 

“We can go to that sushi place you like,” Jared says.

“You don’t like sushi,” Julius says, almost accusatory. People who like sushi get so offended if you don’t. It’s weird. “You’re allergic.”

“Their teriyaki’s fine,” Jared says. “C’mon, lunch tomorrow?”

“Fine,” Julius says, and Jared isn’t sure if he’s being grumpy or just Julius about it. Figuring out Julius’ moods is a bit of a learning process. He may have started to get the faces down, but the voice is still up in the air. The fact Julius speaks mostly in monotone doesn’t help.

“We can go somewhere else if you want,” Jared says.

“Sushi is good,” Julius relents.

*

Bryce gets to the hotel he booked almost the second Jared gets into his own car, so Jared drives there instead of back to his own hotel. 

“I’ll come down, you need the room card to come up to our floor,” Bryce says when Jared calls to tell him he’s there, and Jared has a sudden sinking feeling.

Bryce is waiting in the lobby, ridiculously incognito — he looks like a complete douche wearing sunglasses and a toque inside, but, unfortunately, a hot douche. Well, fortunately, Jared guesses, but sometimes he doubts his taste. That doubt is always obliterated the second Bryce takes his dumb clothes off.

“You look like a douche,” Jared tells him when they get into the elevator. They haven’t touched, which is the smart thing to do, but it’s also kind of hard not to jump Bryce the second he sees him when he hasn’t seen him in weeks, douche look or not.

“But a hot douche,” Bryce says, infuriatingly accurate, and then holds his card against a reader, hits the button for the top floor. 

Jared’s sinking feeling is firmly proven right when they walk into the room. And it’s not actually a room. There are multiple rooms. It has stairs. It has _levels_. Jared is pretty sure this is Bryce’s idea of revenge for Jared daring to book them a three star hotel last time.

“What is this, the freaking honeymoon suite?” Jared asks.

“Get started on the honeymoon early?” Bryce says with a grin. “Nah, just a regular suite.”

Just a regular suite, he says. It’s the size of their apartment, and they have a big apartment. 

“Bryce,” Jared complains, but Bryce cuts him off with a kiss, and Jared doesn’t pay much attention to the stupid gaudy room after that.

*

Jared feels considerably more mellow about the room after, stretched out on a obscenely wide king bed, playing with Bryce’s fingers. Bryce may have gone incognito with the hat and shit, but he wore his engagement ring. His ring is ridiculous, even worse in person than it looked online, so many diamonds it looks more like a Cup ring than anything else, but Jared still feels something stupidly warm in his chest, seeing it on Bryce’s finger, knowing it for the promise it is.

“Nice, huh?” Bryce says, wiggling his hand. The thing sparkles right in Jared’s face. He thinks he’s gone blind.

“Asshole,” Bryce says, when Jared says so, and pulls him into a kiss by his chain, fingers tangled in it. Jared takes the hint, undoes it to slide his ring on, so they match. Well, not match, one of those rings is much more subtle than the other, but, well. No, Jared stands by saying they match.

They order room service, and there’s a huge dining room table — regular suite Jared’s ass — but they eat it in bed, Jared half propped up by pillows, half propped up by Bryce. The only time they’ve been out of touching distance was when Bryce answered the door for the food, hastily half-dressed. It’s like recharging his batteries or something; the simplest thing, leaning his cheek against Bryce’s shoulder, or their fingers brushing when Bryce handed him a fork, it settles him back into himself. 

The bed is terrific. Jared hates noticing that, but also, he has a damn good night of sleep, between it and Bryce a line of heat down his back. Jared never quite thought of himself as a cuddler before — well, he kind of is with Bryce, but that’s like, on the couch, or after sex and stuff, not sleeping. Maybe he wouldn’t be if they hadn’t had those offsetting schedules pretty much from the start, so that when they are actually sharing a bed, Jared will never look a gift horse in the mouth. It’s nice, to have the physical reminder he’s with Bryce, except early mornings when he’s trying to untangle himself so he can hit the bathroom and Bryce is hanging onto him like Jared’s his personal Pooh Bear.

He’s doing it again this morning, clinging tightly enough Jared has to wake him up to get disentangled, and when he comes back into the bedroom, Bryce is squinting at him, looking confused and betrayed, his hair a mess of bedhead.

“Come back,” he says plaintively.

Jared can do that, lets Bryce plaster himself to him again, not a whisper of space between their bodies, until it gets late, or, still early, but not if you have a three hour drive, and he prods Bryce into getting dressed, Bryce pouting the whole time.

“Kiss for the road?” Bryce asks, when he’s put himself back together, sunglasses and toque and all. 

Jared checks his phone, because he doubts a kiss for the road would actually be a kiss for the road. They’re actually good, though. “I think we have enough time for a blowjob for the road. You wanna?”

“Do I wanna?” Bryce asks disbelievingly, and yeah, it was kind of a rhetorical question.

*

The Oilers go on a week-long road trip, and Jared feels so much better sharing a room with Julius again instead of being alone inside those stupid white walls, he starts booking viewing after viewing for when he gets back.

It takes Jared only a few days before he finds an apartment where the light feels right. Julius is super lazy about coming along with him now that he’s found a place of his own, the asshole, so Jared’s going it alone, but Bryce sends thumbs up to the pictures Jared sends, so that’s his second opinion handled.

His new place ends up being in the same building as Julius. It’s a convenient location, and the building’s huge, but Jared felt weird going for a viewing, like he was co-opting it or something. But then, Julius stole _his_ apartment — lousy lit as it was — and he gave Jared a very strange look when Jared asked if it was okay if he lived in the same place. And yeah, they may have shared a room for literal months, and still do, on the road, but Jared doesn’t want to intrude or anything.

Jared’s dad has to come down and co-sign as his guarantor, which Jared finds kind of hilarious, considering he’s making like, an entire year’s rent per NHL game, but also he’s nineteen with basically zero credit history, so. He wonders who signed for Julius. Like, can you be a guarantor from Finland? Did Jacobi do it as his captain? Could he? Or like, Deslauriers? Do GMs sign guarantees? Maybe the team financial people? Did Julius just pull up all the articles about him being the favourite to win the Calder already and then they went ‘oh shit, our bad, all yours Mr. Halla’?

If Jared was worried about intruding, well, he shouldn’t have been, because Julius is the one who intrudes. Not like, in a bad way, Jared should clarify. For one, he puts all of Jared’s furniture together, which is awesome, because that means Jared doesn’t have to go it alone and potentially fuck it up, or alternately beg his dad to come back to Edmonton to do it for him. Or Bryce, he guesses, but he has a feeling Bryce isn’t exactly handy. He comes by with his arms full of food and says he didn’t realise how big the portions the place around the corner had, and did Jared want some dinner. It’s a convenient kind of intrusion. Maybe intrusion isn’t the right word. Sudden drop ins? Welcome, but frequent.

“Dinner?” Jared asks hopefully when Julius shows up at his place at six. There’s nothing in his hands, but who knows, maybe he has some upstairs, or ordered it to Jared’s place. 

“Okay,” Julius says, but like it was an invitation, and then wanders in.

“Make yourself at home,” Jared says when Julius sprawls across his couch.

“It’s boring,” Julius says.

“What’s boring?” Jared asks.

Julius shrugs, kind of sharp, and doesn’t leave until late, even though they’re just both on their phones in front of a muted Sportsnet. Jared realises after he leaves it was probably not boring he meant, but lonely. 

Jared feels that. Living alone kind of isn’t like he was expecting it to be. He thought it’d be like living at Bryce’s when Bryce was out of town, but it isn’t, maybe because there isn’t this imminent Bryce arrival at all times, that it’s his place, not theirs. 

He might be annoyed if it was someone else popping in all the time, like, basically any of the other Oilers, but Julius is chill enough that hanging out with him is mostly just doing what he’d do himself, but with silent company and maybe some minor bickering about what to get for dinner. Julius has a sushi problem, and there’s only so Jared’s willing or able to eat on that menu. His shellfish allergy kind of made him wary of an entire ocean’s worth of food, seaweed included. Well, he knows seaweed’s safe, but it’s also gross, so.

Other than the homesickness burning in him, though, things are going surprisingly well. Jared’s no Julius Halla: Calder Frontrunner or anything, but he keeps quietly putting up numbers. More than he expected to, his first year, more than he’d even hoped. He’d been warned over and over again about the drop in production from the Dub, that he’d be playing fewer minutes, much harder opponents, and the drop off’s there for sure, but he’s pretty proud of how well he’s adjusted to it, the speed of the game, the size of the guys gunning for him, the goalies who are unreal in comparison to the ones in Juniors.

There’s more than a few articles including Jared’s name now, and Jared honestly shouldn’t be reading them, because some of the comments about him are complimentary — all are complimentary, actually — but they basically all include the disclaimer that they don’t think Jared would be doing as well without Julius. And he wouldn’t, he he knows he wouldn’t, his points total on the fourth line versus the third can attest that Julius is having a positive impact on his play, but like — Julius is playing better with him _too_ , and none of the articles mention that. 

He knows it shouldn’t get to him, but it does. Obviously he’s not Halla level. Halla level’s rare, that’s why people get so hyped when that sort of thing happens. Julius is straight up the best rookie in the league right now, and he’s doing that at _eighteen_ , obviously Jared’s not his level. If Julius grows as a player, and he’s going to grow as a player, he’s going to be right up at the top of the league. Jared looked at Bryce’s rookie stats, and he was five points behind Julius at that point in his season, a year older and a year more experienced. So it’s not that he’s expecting them to think he’s like, Julius level, because he’s not. He’s not Julius level, and he’s not Bryce level, and he never will be, and he’s fine with that. 

But he’s been _good_. He’s been really, really good, and a lot of that’s thanks to playing with Julius, but it’s like they don’t think he’s been doing any of it himself, like they think a superstar can get on the ice and make everything happen by himself. And yeah, Julius is the kind of player who can make something out of almost nothing, but Jared has to help him with that. It’s not like Julius is the only guy on their line.

He vents to his dad, who says a lot of supportive things and then tells him to stop reading stuff about himself, which Jared knows. Vents to Bryce, and he’s a little worried Bryce is going to think he’s being a shit about it, because he’s like, the Halla of the Flames, but he needs to get it out, and he obviously can’t talk about it with Julius, so.

“I’m not jealous of Julius,” Jared says.

“I know you’re not,” Bryce says.

“I’m really not,” Jared says. “I know it sounds like I am, but—”

“I _know_ ,” Bryce says. “Babe, you haven’t been jealous of me like, once, and I’m better than Halla.”

“Right now, maybe,” Jared says.

“ _Hey_ ,” Bryce says.

“Also, nice modesty,” Jared says.

“I’m not gonna lie about my play,” Bryce says. “You’re not a reporter, I don’t have to do that humble shit with you. I can’t say the same things about myself you say about me?”

“Fair enough,” Jared says. 

“Look, the reporters and casual fans and shit, they’ll act like Halla’s all they need, or Jacobi or Rogers or whatever, that the big names are the only important thing, a few hot players and you’re set,” Bryce says. “Front office knows better, and the room knows better. Halla knows better.”

“I know,” Jared says.

“And stop reading that stuff,” Bryce says.

“I _know_ ,” Jared says. 

*

Jared tries to stop reading it. He mostly manages, especially after he resolves not to look up anything including the words ‘Oilers’, ‘Halla’ or ‘Matheson’. He still fails sometimes, because there’ve been hockey blogs he’s been reading since he was a kid, keeps reading, and sometimes there’s stuff about Julius, because, well, he’s having a special couple of months so far. Not that it seems likely to change.

The bonus about occasionally stumbling on those is it _really_ bugs Julius when Jared tells him all the nicknames he’s been getting.

“Bob Sawyer is calling you the Svelte Suomi Sniper,” Jared says. “Catchy.”

“Svelte?” Julius asks.

“Means you’re skinny,” Jared says, and Julius gives him the finger without looking up from his phone.

 _You alone? Home?_ , Bryce texts.

 _Julius is here_ , Jared texts back. _Can’t Skype._

Bryce doesn’t respond, which Jared is interpreting as sulky silence, since that’s the third time this week Jared’s had to say that. Skyping’s riskier; Julius could wander in and see Bryce’s face and then what? Also, it generally leads to Skype sex. Jared can’t have sex with Julius in his apartment, and it’s rude to kick him out because he wants to get laid.

Bryce continues not to respond, and Jared sighs and hits call.

“My fiancé,” Jared says on his way to his room, and Julius waves a hand, still not looking up from his phone.

“He’s always there,” Bryce says, instead of hello.

“Last time I called you Chaz was at our place,” Jared says. “He was literally the one who picked up the phone.”

“Chaz is different,” Bryce says. “Chaz is your friend too. And he _knows_.”

“Julius knows I’m engaged,” Jared says, then, “Quit being jealous.”

“I’m not jealous,” Bryce says.

“Uh huh,” Jared says. “Just like you weren’t jealous of Raf?”

“I’m not,” Bryce says, then, a little whiny, “He’s _always there_.”

“Yeah well, it gets kind of lonely not being in the same city as your family or fiancé,” Jared says. “And like, for him it’s probably ten times worse, since he’s in a whole other continent, so stop.”

“Sorry,” Bryce says. “I just miss you.”

“You too,” Jared says. “I can come up for American Thanksgiving though, we’ve got the day.”

“I’ll make turkey,” Bryce says, brightening.

Jared waits.

“I’ll order a turkey,” Bryce amends.

“Sounds good,” Jared says. “We could bring it to my parents’ house?”

He’s half waiting for Bryce to get sulky about that, considering the whole Jared being monopolized thing, but he agrees without hesitation.

“How is fiancé?” Julius asks when Jared comes out of his room.

“Good,” Jared says. “How’s your girlfriend?”

“Good,” Julius says.

“Cool,” Jared says. “Movie?”

“Sure,” Julius says, and Jared gives him the remote to let him pick, spends most of the movie texting Bryce and Chaz and Raf, while Julius, nose in his own phone, texts whoever he’s texting, and they half watch it in companionable silence.


End file.
